Saturday, 27 August 2011

Suspension by Chris Lawrence - Morgan Aero 8

Up until 2000 the last time Morgan had introduced a new body style was 1964, only 26 glass fibre bodied +4+ cars were built over 4 years and since that time Morgan have successfully focused on improving a design that dates back to 1936.

In 2000 Morgan launched a genuinely ground up new 'retro' design the Morgan Aero 8, a clear nod to Morgan's successful past with an eye on the future.

The heart of the Aero 8 was a 325 hp 4.4 litre / 268.5 cui BMW V8, with fake Morgan cam covers, capable of accelerating the car from rest to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and on to a top speed of over 170 mph.

The all new aluminium chassis, completely unrelated to the steel ladder chassis of earlier models, was developed with the help of Morgan's best known racing exponent and tuner Chris Lawrence. Unusually for a vehicle with this kind of performance the chassis and suspension are so stiff that the suspension does not have anti roll / sway bars.

The Aero 8 has since been offered as a limited edition coupé the Aero Max, of which just 100 have been built and the Targa topped Aero SuperSports. Production of these cars is coming to an end at the Morgan factory, in anticipation of a new Morgan 4 wheel model.

An insight into some of the work of Chris Lawrence, who passed away on August 13th, can be found on this link.

Thanks for joining me on this edition of 'Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don't forget to come back now !

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About off side front Tyre

The first race I attended was at Ndola in Zambia where Mum's boss raced a Mini.
I was taken to The Race of Champions '73 - '75, and in ‘76 to the last GP on the Nordschliefe.
A succession of cheap cars allowed me to head for the Silverstone 6 hour races '78 - '92, Le Mans and the British/European GPs '79 - '83.
In ‘85 a buddy Sven phoned up and asked me to crew for his #44 Ray's Toys Capri in the Willhire 24 hours, I spent the weekend lugging jerry cans and holding a fire extinguisher during pit stops.
By ‘87 Sven was clocking up wins in the Alfa Sud series 1st in a 33, destroyed at Castle Combe, and later in a Sud .
In 1990 I went racing in a 2CV 'LYLLYK' highlighted by the Mondello Park 24 hours.
From ‘92 to ‘03 I lost track of racing until blogs on yahoo sports by Jerry Bonkowski, awakened a passion for NASCAR.
Thanks to Rowdy.com I went to the April ’09 Arron's 499 making a 7000 mile round trip, quite a contrast from the BTCC at Brands Hatch .